The pervasiveness of computers and other processor-based devices has resulted in data proliferation such that vast amounts of digital data are created and stored daily. Although originally the sole domain of well-funded companies and research institutions, technology advancements and cost reductions over time have enabled computers and other electronic devices to become commonplace in the lives of most everyone.
Initially, digital computers were simply very large calculators designed to aid performance of scientific calculations. Only many years later had computers evolved to a point where they were able to execute stored programs and provide more diverse functionality. Constant improvement of processing power coupled with significant advances in computer memory and/or storage devices (as well as expediential reduction in cost) led to persistence and processing of a large volume of data.
Continued advancements over the years have led to a dramatic decrease in both size and cost of electronic components. As a result, the popularity of bulky desktop-style computers is giving way to smaller mobile devices. Individuals interact with a plurality of such devices daily including mobile phones, personal digital assistants, media players, digital recorders and/or hybrids thereof. For example, individuals employ digital cameras (e.g., solo-device, camera phone, web camera . . . ) to take a number of pictures, videos or the like.
The Internet has further driven creation of digital content. The Internet provides an infrastructure that supports applications such as e-mail, file transfer and the World Wide Web (Web), among other things. This encourages users to create or capture digital content such that it can be transmitted or accessed expeditiously over the Internet. As a result, digital devices are employed to capture media and store such files locally and/or remotely. For example, individuals may upload their pictures, movies, music or the like to one or more websites or servers to enable people to download or otherwise access such content. Alternatively, individuals may send files via e-mail, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or multimedia messaging service (MMS), among other things. Unfortunately, local or remote stored data is of minimal use unless it can be located expeditiously.
To maximize the likelihood of locating relevant information amongst an abundance of data, search engines or query processors are regularly employed. A search engine is a tool that facilitates data navigation based on entry of a query comprising one or more keywords. Upon receipt of a query, the engine or processor is operable to retrieve a list of objects (e.g., pictures, images, sounds, music, multimedia . . . ), typically ranked based on relevance to the query.
Search engines identify relevant content utilizing information or data associated with the content. This information is often referred to as metadata, which is defined as data that describes other data. For example, a conventional digital camera can tag a picture with the date and time it was taken. Hence, pictures can be located by a search engine based on date and/or time of creation. However, this is somewhat limited.
Similarly, metadata plays a role with respect to organizing, sorting or otherwise interacting with content. For example, it may be advantageous to sort files into one or more folders or other container to aid location. Further, programs can be employed to automatically sort data as function of file name and/or metadata (e.g., file type) associated therewith. However, where the metadata associated with a file consists solely of file type, time and/or date, there are limited ways to divide or otherwise differentiate content.
To enable more useful or intuitive searches and/or facilitate organization, sorting or the like, users can manually associate metadata with a file. For example, a picture can be decorated with metadata describing elements of the picture such as people in the picture, location, event, among other things. Unfortunately, this can be a very time consuming task that may deter employment of such functionality.